In today’s blog we are closing out our final topics that were specific to women, for the month of March and this post is going to be about Endometriosis. Now , I’m pretty sure many of you out there may already know what Endometriosis is and there are many that don’t.

If you have not heard about it before, endometriosis is a disorder that affects the female reproductive system. This disorder specifically affects the uterus. The uterus is the area in which when pregnancy occurs the baby grows while inside the embryo sac. The uterus also sheds every month during to release an egg and that is why we have bleeding and have our menstrual cycle.

The tissue that lines the uterus is called “endometrium”. What happens in endometriosis is that the endometrium tissue starts to grow outside of the uterus.  The ovaries, fallopian tubes, and tissue in the pelvis can all be involved because the tissue growth can spread.

This is a condition that can be very painful for the women that do have it especially during the time of their monthly menstrual cycle that tissue becomes inflamed due to all the hormones that are being released.

The reason why I wanted to talk about nutrition for endometriosis is because Tia Mowry ( Twin from Sister Sister) has advocated for endometriosis because she has had it for many years and faced struggles with getting pregnant due to endometriosis. She also had to have multiple surgeries to removed the tissue that was growing outside of her uterus even though it would come back. She has advocated that changing her nutrition and diet is what helped her to not only get pregnant but manage her symptoms.

What she focused on was removing foods from her diet that triggered inflammation because it would cause the pain to be worse. She removed processed foods from her diet and a lot of dairy from her diet because dairy causes inflammation in the body. Eating more fruits, and vegetables, and fresh foods was a key to managing her symptoms. 

I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog post and if any have questions about endometriosis or changing your diet please talk to your Primary Care Provider or a Registered Dietitian.